Venkateswaran Sundareswaran

11/14/2016

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Seven building blocks for digital workplace transformation

Demographic shifts and technology advances, such as ubiquitous connectivity, are converging to fundamentally change the way companies work. As we highlighted in a recent article, five generations of employees will be working together by 2020, with millennials constituting a majority—and each generation will have different expectations for the workplace. Here, we’ll cover seven concrete steps you can take toward digital innovation and workplace transformation.

Identify employee needs

The first step is to understand the needs of your workforce. This requires a robust framework that segments staff into representative personas based on employee role, age, day-to-day functions and more.

Foster limitless ideation

Use design thinking to ensure that initiatives are drawn from a pool of all possible solutions. Mindtree’s innovation incubator, the Digital Pumpkin, provides a structured process for ideation through a solution innovation funnel.

Prioritize the best ideas

The best solutions address both workforce needs and business objectives. The solution innovation funnel helps focus these efforts by mapping initiatives to organizational priorities such as productivity, engagement, inclusivity, and health and safety, as depicted below.

Develop prototypes of selected ideas

The success of any digital workplace program hinges on the intuitiveness and ease of use of the technical solution. This requires UX, BA and technical consultants to engage with stakeholders and end users to create rapid prototyping, which helps validate and refine concepts as well as provide the best value to the business.

Pilot and test the initiative

By working closely with business users and defining smaller sprints, the Agile test-and-learn approach provides constant feedback and course correction. Early piloting and testing of the initiative with the selected technology stack reduces risk by identifying challenges early on, minimizing redundant work and retaining a sharp focus on optimum ROI.

An experienced partner can use existing frameworks and accelerators across the technology spectrum to facilitate faster time to realization and promote greater predictability and reliability.

Measure and drive ROI

Once the initiatives are defined, it is important to determine the measurements for success. Clearly defined outcomes help provide a holistic understanding of transformation. This requires implementation of a cohesive analytics platform to establish KPIs and measure the ROI for each initiative.

Create a scalable managed services model

We believe the real key to the success of any digital initiative is to maintain a consistent experience for end users. This requires the product manager to work closely with business stakeholders to promote smooth change management and drive rapid adoption.

At Mindtree, we have brought all these elements together to execute successful digital initiatives for Fortune 500 companies. Contact us to start addressing employee needs and create the workplace of the future.